Kurt Wolfram Carlos Elmenhorst

Carlos W. Elmenhorst (actually Kurt Wolfram Karl Walter Elmenhorst ; born April 6, 1910 in Kiel , † October 24, 2000 in Guatemala City ) was a German merchant , scholar , Maya researcher and collector of Mayan textiles.

Life

Kurt Wolfram Karl Walter Elmenhorst comes from the old Hamburg merchant family Elmenhorst . He was the oldest of five children. His father Max Wolfram Elmenhorst (1880–1936) was a naval officer in Kiel as Imperial Corvette Captain until 1919 . After an apprenticeship as a wholesale and foreign trade merchant at the export and import company Eduard Ringel & Co. in Hamburg, which specialized in coffee, he went to Guatemala in 1932 . He now used his third first name Karl, as this also worked in English ("Charles") and Spanish ("Carlos"). Here he worked in the coffee trade for over 60 years , initially from 1933–1944 at Nottebohm Hermanos (Nottebohm Brothers), the second largest coffee producer in Guatemala at the time. In 1946 he founded his own company (initially Carlos W. Elmenhorst , later Oliva-Elmenhorst & Co ). Later he exported honey as well as coffee. In 1983 he withdrew from trading and devoted himself exclusively to collecting.

In addition to his activity as a merchant, from the 1930s onwards he systematically collected the textiles of the various Mayan tribes residing in Guatemala and in this way brought together what is probably the most comprehensive collection of Mayan textiles in the world today. In 1989 he donated his collection to the Hamburg Museum für Völkerkunde , which has been exhibiting it as the Elmenhorst Collection in the permanent collection since 2011 . The museum paid tribute to this by adding his name to the left sponsor column in the entrance area.

Since October 2011, the Museum für Völkerkunde has presented selected pieces from its collection as a special exhibition by Elmenhorst & Co in the exhibition Heart of the Maya together with other collectors of Mayan textiles. The exhibition also gives a little insight into collecting, archiving and cataloging in general.

He bequeathed his library with an extensive collection of autographs and contemporary travel and expedition reports in Central America from the 16th century as the Carlos Elmenhorst Collection to the Ludwig von Mises Library of the Francisco Marroquín University in Guatemala City. It is currently being completely digitized and will be put online soon.

Carlos Elmenhorst married the merchant's daughter Gerda Anna Jördens on August 3, 1946. The marriage produced three daughters. He is a nephew of the ethnologist Wilhelm Elmenhorst .

Web links

• Hamburger Abendblatt: Culture - For a few hours to South America
• Collection Elmenhorst in the Museum für Völkerkunde Hamburg
• Carlos Elmenhorst Collection at Francisco-Marroquín University in Guatemala City

literature

• Museum für Völkerkunde (Ed.): Elmenhorst & Co , ISBN 978-3-9812566-3-5 .